The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 film)

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1934 British adventure film directed by Harold Young and starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, and Raymond Massey. Based on the classic adventure novel The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, the film is about an eighteenthcentury English aristocrat who leads a double life, appearing as an effete aristocrat while engaged in an underground effort to free French nobles from Robespierres Reign of Terror. The film was produced by Alexander Korda.

Back in Paris, Robespierre meets with Chauvelin, the republics new ambassador to Britain, to discuss the problem of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Summoning the Count de Tournay, they offer him his life in return for information from his English contacts as to the Pimpernels true identity. The Scarlet Pimpernel is Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English baronet and friend of the Prince of Wales. Sir Percy cultivates the image of a fop in order to throw off suspicion. His pose is so successful that not even his French wife Marguerite suspects the truth. Though the two are in love, Sir Percy no longer trusts his wife because of her past denunciation of the Marquis de St. Cyr, which led to the execution of the marquis and his family.Through his network of spies, Chauvelin discovers that Armand St. Just, Marguerites brother is one of the Scarlet Pimpernels agents. Chauvelin orders Armands arrest, then uses the threat of his execution to force Marguerite into helping him discover the identity of the Pimpernel, who he knows will be at an upcoming ball. At the ball, Marguerite intercepts a message given to Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, a member of the Pimpernels band, stating that the Pimpernel will be in the library at midnight. She passes the information along to Chauvelin, who goes to the library to find only Percy, apparently asleep. While waiting, Chauvelin falls asleep when he wakes up, he finds a message from the Pimpernel mocking him. ........

Source: Wikipedia